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Olusegun
Obasanjo
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I
am constrained to make this an open letter to you for a number of
reasons. One, the current situation and
consequent possible outcome dictate that I should, before the
door closes on reason and promotion of national
interest, alert you to the danger
that may be lurking in the
corner. Two, none of the four or more
letters that I have written to you in the
past two years or so has elicited
an acknowledgment or any response.
Three, people close to you, if not
yourself, have been asking, what does
Obasanjo want?
Four, I could sense a semblance between the
situation that we are gradually getting into and the situation we
fell into as a nation during the Abacha era. Five, everything
must be done to guard, protect and defend
our fledgling democracy, nourish it and
prevent bloodshed. Six, we must
move away from advertently or inadvertently
dividing the country along weak seams of North-South and
Christian-Moslem. Seven, nothing should be
done to allow the country to degenerate
into economic dormancy, stagnation or
retrogression.
Eight,
some of our international friends and
development partners are genuinely worried about
signs and signals that are coming out
of Nigeria. Nine, Nigeria should be in
a position to take advantage of the present
favourable international interest to invest
in Africa - an opportunity that will
not be open for too long.
Ten, I am concerned about your legacy and your climb-down
which you alone can best be the manager of, whenever you so decide.
Mr.
President, you have on a number of occasions
acknowledged the role God enabled me to
play in your ascension to power. You
put me third after God and your
parents among those that have impacted
most on your life.
I have
always retorted that God only put you where
you are and those that could be regarded as
having played a role were only instruments of God to achieve
God’s purpose in your life. For me, I believe
that politically, it was in the best
interest of Nigeria that you, a Nigerian
from minority group in the South, could
rise to the highest pinnacle of political
leadership.
If Obasanjo could get there, Yar’Adua
could get there and Jonathan can get there, any Nigerian can. It is now not a
matter of the turn of any section or geographical
area but the best interest of Nigeria and all
Nigerians. It has been proved that no group –
ethnic, linguistic, religious or geographical
location – has monopoly of materials for
leadership of our country. And no
group solely by itself can crown any of its members
the Nigerian CEO. It is good for Nigeria.
I
have also always told you that God
has graciously been kind, generous, merciful
and compassionate to me and He has
done more than I could have ever
hoped for. I want nothing from
you personally except that you should run the affairs of Nigeria not only
to make Nigeria good, but to make Nigeria great
for which I have always pleaded with you
and I will always do so. And it is yet to
be done for most Nigerians to see.
For
five capacities in which you find yourself, you must hold yourself most
significantly responsible for what happens or fails to happen in Nigeria and in
any case, most others will hold you responsible and God who put you there
will surely hold you responsible and
accountable.
I have had opportunity, in recent
times, to interact closely with you and I have come to the conclusion
painfully or happily that if you can shun yourself to a great
extent of personal and political interests
and dwell more on the national interest
and also draw the line between advice
from selfish and self-centered aides and advice from those who in
the interest of the nation may not tell you what
you will want to hear, it will
be well.
The five positions which
you share with nobody except with God
and which place great and grave responsibility
on you are leadership of the ruling
party, headship of the Federal Government
or national government, Commander-in-Chief of the
Military, Chief Security Officer of the
nation, and the political leader of the country.
Those positions go with being the President of our country and while
depending on your disposition, you can delegate or
devolve responsibility, but the buck must
stop on your table whether you like it or not.
Let
me start with the leadership of the ruling party. Many of us
were puzzled over what was going on in the party. Most party
members blamed the National Chairman. I
understand that some in the presidency tried to create the
impression that some of us were to blame. The situation became clear
only when the National Chairman spoke
out that he never did anything or
acted in any way without the approval
or concurrence of the Party Leader and
that where the Party Leader disapproved,
he made correction or amendment, that we realised most actions
were those of the Chairman but the motivation
and direction were those of the
Leader. It would be unfair to continue to level full blames
on the Chairman for all that goes wrong with the Party.
The
Chairman is playing the tune dictated by the Paymaster.
But the Paymaster is acting for a
definitive purpose for which deceit and deception seem
to be the major ingredients. Up till two months ago, Mr.
President, you told me that you have not told anybody that you would contest in
2015. I quickly pointed out to you that the signs and the
measures on the ground do not tally with your statement. You said the
same to one other person who shared his observation with me. And only a fool would believe that
statement you made to me judging by
what is going on.
I must say that it is not
ingenious. You may wish to pursue a more credible and more
honourable path. Although you have not formally
informed me one way or the other,
it will be necessary to refresh
your memory of what transpired
in 2011. I had gone to
Benue State for the marriage of one
of my staff, Vitalis Ortese, in the
State. Governor Suswam was my hospitable
host.
He told me that you had
accepted a one-term presidency to allow for ease of getting support
across the board in the North. I decided to
cross-check with you. You did not
hesitate to confirm to me that you are a strong believer in a one-term of
six years for the President and that by
the time you have used the unexpired
time of your predecessor and the four
years of your first term, you would
have almost used up to six years and you would not need any more term or time.
Later,
I heard from other sources including sources
close to you that you made the same
commitment elsewhere, hence, my inclusion
of it in my address at the finale of your campaign in
2011 as follows:
“…PDP
should be praised for being the only
party that enshrines federal character, zoning
and rotation in its Constitution and
practises it. PDP has brought stability and substantial
predictability to the polity and to the system. I do
not know who will be President of Nigeria after Dr. Goodluck Jonathan. That is in the hand of God. But with PDP policy and practice,
I can reasonably guess from where, in term of
section of the country, the successor
to President Jonathan will come. And no
internal democracy or competition will thereby be destroyed.
The recent resort to sentiments and
emotions of religion and regionalism is
self-serving, unpatriotic and mischievous, to
say the least. It is also preying on
dangerous emotive issues that can ignite uncontrollable passion and
can distabilise if not destroy our
country. This is being oblivious to
the sacrifices others have made in the
past for unity, stability and democracy in
Nigeria in giving up their lives, shedding
their blood, and in going to prison. I
personally have done two out of those three sacrifices and I am ready to do the
third if it will serve the best interest of Nigerian
dream. Let me appeal to those who have embarked on this
dangerous road to reflect and desist from taking us on a perishable journey.
With
common identity as Nigerians, there is more that binds us
than separates us. I am a
Nigerian, born a Yoruba man, and I am
proud of both identities as they are
for me complementary. Our duties, responsibilities and
obligations to our country as citizens and, indeed, as leaders must
go side by side with our rights
and demands. There must be certain values and
virtues that must go concomitantly with our
dream. Thomas Paine said “my country is the world”; for me, my
country I hold dear.
On
two occasions, I have had opportunity
to work for my successors to the
government of Nigeria. On both occasions, I
never took the easy and distabilising route of
ethnic, regional or religious consideration, rather I
took the enduring route of national, uniting
and stabilising route. I worked
for both President Shagari and President Yar’Adua to succeed me not just
because they are Moslems, Northerners or Hausa-Fulani,
but because they could strengthen the unity,
stability and democracy in Nigeria. We incurred
the displeasure of ethnic chauvinists for doing what was right for
the country. That is in the nature of burden of leadership. A
leader must lead, no matter whose ox is gored.
In
the present circumstance, let me reiterate
what I have said on a number of
occasions. Electing Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, in his
own right and on his own merit, as the
President of Nigeria will enhance and
strengthen our unity, stability and
democracy. And it will lead us
towards the achievement of our Nigerian dream.
There
is a press report that Dr. Goodluck Jonathan has already taken a unique and
unprecedented step of declaring that he
would only want to be a one-term
President. If so, whether we
know it or not, that is a
sacrifice and it is statesmanly. Rather than vilify
him and pull him down, we, as a Party, should
applaud and commend him and Nigerians should reward and venerate
him. He has taken the first good step.
Let
us encourage him to take more good steps by
voting him in with landslide victory as the
fourth elected President of Nigeria on
the basis of our common Nigerian identity and for the
purpose of actualising Nigerian dream…”
When
you won the election, one of the issues you very early pursued was that of one
term of six years. That convinced me that you meant what
you told me before my Speech at the campaign. Mr.
President, whatever may be your intention or plan, I cannot comment much on the
constitutional aspect of your second term or
what some people call third term. That is
for both legal and judicial
attention. But if constitutionally
you are on a strong wicket if you so decide, it will be
fatally and morally flawed. As a leader, two
things you must cherish and hold dear
among others are trust and honour both of which are
important ingredients of character. I will want to see anyone
in the Office of the Presidency of Nigeria as a man or woman who can be
trusted, a person of honour in his words and character. I
will respect you for upholding these
attributes and for dignifying that Office.
Chinua
Achebe said, “One of the truest test of integrity is its blunt refusal to
be compromised.” It is a lesson
for all leaders including you and me.
However,
Mr. President, let me hope that as you claimed that you have not told anybody
that you are contesting and that what we see and hear is a
rumbling of overzealous aides, you will
remain a leader that can be believed and trusted
without unduly passing the buck or engaging in game of denials.
Maybe
you also need to know that many
party members feel disappointed in the
double game you were alleged to play
in support of party gubernatorial candidates
in some States where you surreptitiously
supported non-PDP candidates against PDP
candidates in exchange for promise or act
of those non-PDP Governors supporting you
for your election in the past or for
the one that you are yet to
formally declare. It happened in Lagos in 2011
when Bola Tinubu was nocturnally brought to Abuja to strike
a deal for support for your personal election at
great price materially and in the fortune
of PDP gubernatorial candidate.
As
Chairman of BOT, I spoke to you at that time. It happened in Ondo State
where there was in addition evidence of cover-up
and non-prosecution of fraud of fake security
report against the non-PDP candidate and
his collaborators for the purpose of extracting personal electoral advantage
for you.
In fact, I have raised with you the story of those
in other States in the South-West where some disgruntled PDP
members were going around to recruit people into the Labour Party
for you, because, for electoral purpose at the national level, Labour
Party will have no candidate but you. It also happened in
Edo State and those who know the
detail never stopped talking about it.
And
you know it. Ditto in Anambra State with the fiasco
coming from undue interference. If you as
leader of the Party cannot be seen to
be loyal to the PDP in support of the candidates of the Party
and the interests of such Party candidates have to be sacrificed on the altar
of your personal and political interest, then
good luck to the Party and I will also say
as I have had occasions to say in the past, good luck to Goodluck.
If
on the altar of the Party you
go for broke, the Party may be broken
beyond repairs. And when in a dispute
between two sides, they both stubbornly decide
to fight to the last drop of blood,
no one knows whose blood would be the last
to drop. In such a situation,
Nigeria as a nation may also be adversely affected, not
just the PDP. I wish to see no more bloodshed
occasioned by politics in Nigeria. Please,
Mr. President, be mindful of that.
You were exemplary in
words when during the campaign and the 2011 elections, you said, “My election
is not worth spilling the blood of any Nigerian.” From
you, it should not be if it has
to be, let it be. It should be
from you, let peace, security, harmony,
good governance, development and progress be for
Nigeria. That is also your responsibility and
mandate. You can do it and I plead that you do it. We all
have to be mindful of not securing pyrrhic
victory on the ashes of great values,
attributes and issues that matter as
it would amount to hollow victory without honour
and integrity.
Whatever
may be the feud in PDP and no matter
what you or your aides may feel, you,
as the Party Leader, have the
responsibility to find solution, resolve and
fix it. Your legacy is
involved. If PDP as a ruling Party
collapses, it will be the first time
in an independent Nigeria that a ruling political
party would collapse not as a result of a military coup. It
is food for thought. At the prompting of
Governors on both sides of the divide, and on encouragement
from you, I spent two nights to intervene in the dispute of the PDP
Governors. I kept you fully briefed at every stage.
I
deliberately chose Banquet Hall at the Villa to ensure
transparency. Your aides studied all the recordings of the
two nights. But I told you at the end of the
exercise that I observed five reactions
among the Governors that required your immediate attention as
you are the only one from the vantage point of your five positions that could
deal effectively with the five reactions which were
bitterness, anger, mistrust, fear and deep
suspicion. I could only hope that
you made efforts to deal with these
unpleasant reactions.
The
feud leading to the factionalisation of the Party made me to invite some
select elders of the Party to mediate
again. Since I was engaged in assignment outside the
country, I was not able to join the three members of the elders group that
presented the report of our mediation to you. I was briefed
that you agreed to work on the
report. It would appear that for now, the
ball is in your court as the Leader of the Party.
I can
only wish you every success in your
handling of the issue. But time is
not your friend or that of the Party in this respect. With leadership
come not just power and authority to do
and to undo, but also responsibility and
accountability to do and to undo
rightly, well and justly. Time
and opportunity are treasure that must be appreciated
and shared to enhance their value and utilitarianism.
It
is instructive that after half a dozen African Presidents have spoken to
me to help you with unifying the
Party based on your request to them
and I came in company of Senator Amadu Ali to discuss the whole
issue with you again, strangely, you denied
ever requesting or authorising any President to talk to
me. I was not surprised because I am used to such a situation
of denial coming from you. Of course, I was not
deterred.
I have done and I will continue to do
and say what is first, in the best interest of Nigeria and
second, what is in the best interest of the Party. I stand
for the aims, objectives, mission and vision of the founding fathers of the
Party, to use it as a wholesome instrument of unity, good governance,
development, prosperity and progress of Nigeria and all
Nigerians. I have contributed to this goal
in the past and no one who has
been raised to position on the platform of
the Party should shy away from
further contribution to avoid division and destruction of the
Party on any altar whatsoever.
Debates
and dialogues are necessary to promote
the interest and work for the progress of any human
institution or organisation. In such a situation, agreements
and disagreements will occur but in the final analysis, leadership
will pursue the course of action that
benefit the majority and serve the purpose of the
organisation, not the purpose of an individual or a minority.
In that process, unity is sustained
and everybody becomes a winner. The
so-called crisis in the PDP can be turned to an opportunity of unity,
mutual understanding and respect with the
Party emerging with enhanced strength and
victory. It will be a win-win for all members of the Party
and for the country.
By that, PDP
would have proved that it could have internal
disagreement and emerge stronger. The calamity of
failure can still be avoided. Please, move away from fringes
or the extremes and move to the centre and carry ALL along. Time is running out.
I
will only state that as far as
your responsibility as Chief Security Officer
of the nation is concerned for
Nigerians, a lot more needs to be done to
enhance the feeling of security amongst them. Whether one
talks of the issue of militancy in the Niger Delta, the underlying causes of which
have not been adequately addressed, if
addressed at all, kidnapping, piracy, abductions and armed
robberies which rather than abate are on the increase and Boko
Haram which requires carrot and stick approach to lay its ghost
to rest, the general security situation
cannot be described as comforting.
Knowing the genesis of Boko Haram and
the reasons for escalation of violence from that sector with the
widespread and ramification of the menace
of Boko Haram within and outside the
Nigerian borders, conventional military actions
based on standard phases of military operations
alone will not permanently and effectively deal with the issue of Boko
Haram.
There are many strands or
layers of causes that require different
solutions, approaches or antidotes.D rug, indoctrination, fundamentalism, gun trafficking,
hate culture, human trafficking, money
laundering, religion, poverty, unemployment, poor education,
revenge and international terrorism are among factors that have
effect on Boko Haram.
One
single prescription cannot cure all these ailments that combine in Boko
Haram. Should we pursue war against violence without
understanding the root causes of the violence
and applying solutions to deal with all
underlying factors – root, stem and branches? Nigeria is bleeding and the
hemorrhage must be stopped. I am
convinced that you can initiate measures that will
bring all hands on deck to deal effectively with this great menace.
Mr.
President, the most important qualification
for your present position is your being
a Nigerian. Whatever else you may be
besides being a Nigerian is only secondary
for this purpose. And if majority of
Nigerians who voted had not cast their votes for you,
you could not have been there.
For you to
allow yourself to be “possessed”, so to say, to the exclusion of most of the
rest of Nigerians as an ‘Ijaw man’ is a mistake that should never have
been allowed to happen. Yes, you have to be
born in one part of Nigeria to be a
Nigerian if not naturalised, but the Nigerian
President must be above ethnic factionalism.
And those who
prop you up as of, and for ‘Ijaw nation’
are not your friends genuinely, not
friends of Nigeria nor friends of ‘Ijaw
nation’, they tout about. To
allow or tacitly encourage people of ‘Ijaw nation’ to throw
insults on other Nigerians from other parts of
the country and threaten fire and brimstone to protect
your interest as an Ijaw man is
myopic and your not openly quieting
them is even more unfortunate.
You
know that I have expressed my views
and feelings to you on this issue in
the past but I have come to
realise that many others feel the way I have earlier expressed to you. It
is not the best way of making friendship among
all sections of Nigeria. You
don’t have shared and wholesome society
without inclusive political, economic and social
sustainable development and good governance.
Also
declaring that one section of the country voted for
you as if you got no votes from other
sections can only be an unnecessary talk,
to put it mildly. After all and at the end
of the day, democracy is a game of numbers. Even, if you would not need
people’s vote across the country again, your political Party will.
Allegation
of keeping over 1,000 people on political watch list rather
than criminal or security watch list
and training snipers and other armed
personnel secretly and clandestinely acquiring
weapons to match for political purposes like Abacha, and
training them where Abacha trained his own killers, if it is true, cannot augur
well for the initiator, the government and the people
of Nigeria. Here again, there
is the lesson of history to learn
from for anybody who cares to learn
from history.
Mr. President would
always remember that he was elected
to maintain security for all Nigerians and
protect them. And no one should
prepare to kill or maim Nigerians for
personal or political ambition or interest
of anyone. The Yoruba adage says, “The man with whose
head the coconut is broken may not live to savour the taste of the succulent
fruit.” Those who advise you to go hard on
those who oppose you are your worst
enemies. Democratic politics admits and is permissive
of supporters and opponents. When the consequences come, those who have
wrongly advised you will not be there to help carry the can. Egypt must
teach some lesson.
Presidential
assistance for a murderer to evade
justice and presidential delegation to welcome
him home can only be in bad taste
generally but particularly to the family of his victim.
Assisting criminals to evade justice cannot be
part of the job of the
Presidency. Or, as it is viewed in
some quarters, is he being recruited to do for you what
he had done for Abacha in the
past? Hopefully, he should have
learned his lesson. Let us continue to watch.
As
Head of Government, the buck of the
performance and non-performance stops on your
table and let nobody tell you
anything to the contrary. Most of our friends
and development partners are worried and they see what
we pretend to cover up. They are worried about issue of
security internally and on our coastal
waters, including heavy oil theft, alias
bunkering and piracy. They are worried
about corruption and what we are doing
or not doing about it.
Corruption has reached the level of
impunity.
It is also necessary
to be mindful that corruption and injustice
are fertile breeding ground for terrorism and political
instability. And if you are not ready
to name, shame, prosecute and stoutly
fight against corruption, whatever you do
will be hollow. It will be
a laughing matter.
They
are worried about how we play our role in our
region and, indeed, in the world. In a
way, I share some of their concerns
because there are notable areas we can do more or
do better than we are doing. Some of our
development partners were politically frustrated
to withdraw from the Olokola LNG project,
which happily was not yet the same
with the Brass. I initiated them both.
They
were viable and would have taken us close to
Qatar as LNG producing country. Please do not frustrate Brass LNG and
in the interest of what is best for
Nigerian economy, bring back the OK LNG into
active implementation. The major international
oil companies have withheld investment in
projects in Nigeria. If they have not
completely moved out, they are divesting. Nigeria, which is the Saudi of
Africa in oil and gas terms, is being
overtaken by Angola only because necessary
decisions are not made timely and
appropriately.
Mr. President, let me again
plead with you to be decisive on the oil and gas sector so that Nigeria may not
lag behind. Oil with gas is being discovered all over Africa.
New technology is producing oil from shale
elsewhere. We should make hay while the sun
shines. I hope we can still save the OK and Brass LNG projects.
Three
things are imperative in the oil and
gas sector – stop oil stealing, encourage
investment, especially by the IOCs and
improve the present poor management of the industry. On the
economy generally, it suffices to say that we could do better
than we are doing. The signs are there and the
expectations are high. The most dangerous
ticking bomb is youth unemployment, particularly in the face
of unbridled corruption and obscene rulers’ opulence.
Let
me repeat that as far as the issue of corruption,
security and oil stealing is concerned, it is only apt to say that when
the guard becomes the thief, nothing is safe,
secure nor protected in the
house. We must all remember that corruption,
inequity and injustice breed poverty,
unemployment, conflict, violence and wittingly
or unwittingly create terrorists because the
opulence of the governor can only
lead to the leanness of the governed.
But God
never sleeps, He is watching, waiting and bidding His time to dispense justice. The
serious and strong allegation of non-remittance of about $7bn from the NNPC to
central bank occurring from export of some 300,000 barrels per day, amounting
to $900 million a month, to be refined and with refined products of
only $400m returned and Atlantic Oil
loading about 130,000 barrels sold by Shell
and managed on behalf of NPDC with no
sale proceeds paid into NPDC account is
incredible. The allegation was buttressed by the letter of
the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria to you on
non-remittance to the central bank. This allegation
will not fly away by non-action, cover-up, denial or
bribing possible investigators. Please deal with this allegation
transparently and let the truth be known.
The
dramatis personae in this allegation and who they are working for will
one day be public knowledge. Those
who know are watching if the National
Assembly will not be accomplice in the heinous crime and naked grand
corruption. May God grant you the grace for
at least one effective corrective action against high
corruption, which seems to stink all around
you in your government.
The
international community knows us as we
are and maybe more than we claim to know ourselves. And a
good friend will tell you the truth no matter how bitter. Denials
and cover-up of what is obvious, true
and factual can detract from honour,
dignity and respect. Truth and transparency
dignify and earn respect. And life
without passion for something can only
achieve little.
I was taken
aback when an African Development Bank
Director informed me that the water
project for Port Harcourt, originally initiated by the Federal Government
and to be financed by the bank, is being put in the cooler by the Federal
Government because of the Amaechi-Jonathan face-off. Amaechi, whether he
likes it or not, will cease to be governor over Rivers State, which Port
Harcourt is part by the end of May 2015, but residents of Port Harcourt will
continue to need improvement of their water supply.
President Jonathan should rise above such
pettiness and unpresidential act, if it is coming from him.
But if not, and it is the action of overzealous
officials reading the situation, he should give appropriate
instruction for the project to be pursued. And there are other projects
anywhere suffering the same coolness as
a result of similar situation, let national
interest supersede personal or political feud and the machinations
of satanic officials.
Mr.
President, let me plead with you for a
few things that will stand you in good stead for the
rest of your life. Don’t always consider critics on
national issues as enemies. Some
of them may be as patriotic and
nationalistic as you and I who have
been in government. Some of them have as
much passion for Nigeria as we have.
I saw that among Nigerians living abroad,
hence, I initiated Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation,
NIDO. You must also differentiate between
malevolent, mischievous and objective criticism. Analyses, criticisms and commentaries on government actions and
policies are sinew of democracy.
Please,
Mr. President, be very wary of assistants, aides and
collaborators who look for enemies for you. I have seen them
with you and some were around me when I was
in your position. I knew how not
to allow them create enemies for me. If you
allow them, everybody except them will be your
enemy. They are more dangerous than identified adversaries. May
God save leaders from sycophants.
They know what you want to hear and they
feed you with it essentially for their own selfish interest. As far as
you and Nigeria are concerned, they
are wreckers. Where were they when
God used others to achieve His will
in your life.
They possess you now for
their interest. No interest should be higher or more important than the
Nigerian interest to you. You have already made history and
please do nothing to mar history. I supported you as I
supported Yar’Adua. For me, there is neither North-South
divide nor Christian-Moslem divide but one Nigeria.
Let
me put it, that talks, loose and
serious, abound about possible abuse and misuse of the
military and the legitimate security apparatus for unwholesome personal and
political interest to the detriment of the honour, dignity, oath and
professionalism of these honourable and patriotic forces.
Let
me urge the authorities not to embark on such destructive path
for an important element of our national make-up. The
roles of the military and the security agencies should be held sacrosanct
in the best interest of the nation. Again, let not history
repeat itself here.
I
believe that with what Nigeria went
through in the past, the worst should have already
happened. It must be your responsibility as the captain of
the ship to prevent the ship from
going aground or from a
shipwreck.
For anybody close to you saying that if the worst
happens, he or she would not be involved is idle and loose
talk. If we leave God to do His will and we don’t
rely only on our own efforts, plans and wisdom,
God will always do His best. And the
power of money and belief in it is satanically
tempting.
As I go around Nigeria and the world, I always come
across Nigerians who are first-class citizens of the world and who are doing
well where they are and who are
passionate to do well for
Nigeria. My hope for our country lies in these
people. They abound and I hope that all of us will realise
that they are the jewels of Nigeria wherever they may be and not those who
arrogate to themselves eternal for ephemeral.
Also,
to my embarrassment at times, I
learned more about what is going on in the public and
private sectors of Nigeria from our development partners, international institutions
and those transacting business in Nigeria most times I was
abroad. On returning home to verify the veracity of these
stories, I found some of them not only
to be true but more horrifying than they were
presented abroad. Other countries
look up to Nigeria for regional
leadership. Failure on the part of Nigeria will create a
schism that will be bad for the region.
Knowing
what happens around you, most of which you know
of and condone or deny, this letter will provoke cacophony from hired and
unhired attackers but I will maintain my serenity because by this letter, I
have done my duty to you as I have always done, to
your government, to the Party, PDP, and to our country, Nigeria.
If I stuck out my neck and God used me and others as instrument to work hard
for you to reach where you are today in what I
considered the best political interest of
Nigeria, tagging me as your enemy or the
enemy of your administration by you, your kin or
your aides can only be regarded as ridiculous to
extreme. If I see any danger to your life, I will point it
out to you or ward it off as I have done in the past.
But
I will not support what I believe is not in the best interest of Nigeria, no
matter who is putting it forward or who is behind
it. Mr. President, I have passed the stage
of being flattered, intimidated, threatened,
frightened, induced or bought. I am never afraid to agree or
disagree but it will always 13 be on principles, and if on politics, in the
national interest. After my prison experience in the close proximity of and
sharing facilities with an asylum in Yola, there is nothing worse for anyone
alive and well.
And that was for a military
dictator to perpetuate himself in
power. Death is the end of all
human beings and may it come when
God wills it to come. The harassment of my
relations and friends and innuendo that are coming from the Government security
apparatus on whether they belong to new PDP or supporters of defected Governors
and which are possibly authorised or are the work of
overzealous aides and those reading your
lips to act in your interest will be counter-productive.
It is abuse of security apparatus. Such abuse took place last
in the time of Abacha.
Lies
and untruths about me emanating from the presidency is too absurd to
contemplate. Saying that I recommended a wanted criminal by UK and USA
authorities to you or your aides to supplant legitimately elected PDP leader in
South-West is not only unwise and crude but also
disingenuous. Nobody in his or
her right senses will believe such a
story and surely nobody in Ogun State
or South-West zone will believe such nonsense.
It is a clear indication of how
unscrupulous and unethical the presidency can go to pursue your personal and
political interest. Nothing else matters.
What a pity! Nothing at this stage of my life would prevent me from
standing for whatever I consider to be in the best interest of Nigeria – all
Nigeria, Africa and the world in that order.
I believe
strongly that a united and strong PDP at all costs is in the best
interest of Nigeria. In these respects, if
our interests and views coincide, together
we will march. Putting a certified
unashamed criminal wanted abroad to face justice and who has greatly
contributed to corruption within the judiciary on a high profile of politics as
you and your aides have done with the man you enthrone as PDP Zonal leader in the
South-West is the height of disservice to this country politically and height
of insult to the people of South-West in general
and members of PDP in that zone in
particular.
For
me, my politics goes with principles and morality and I will not be a party to
highly profiling criminals in politics, not to say one would
be my zonal leader. It destroys
what PDP stands for from its inception…
God
is never a supporter of evil and will surely save PDP and Nigeria from the
hands of destroyers. If everything fails and the Party
cannot be retrieved from the hands
of criminals and commercial jobbers and
discredited touts, men and women of
honour, principles, morality and integrity must step aside to
rethink.
Let
me also appeal to and urge defected, dissatisfied, disgruntled and in any way
displeased PDP Governors, legislators, party officials and party members to
respond positively if the President seriously takes the initiative to
find mutually agreeable solution to the
current problems for which he alone has the key and the
initiative.
I have heard it said particularly within the
presidency circle that the disaffected Governors and members of PDP
are my children. I begin to
wonder if, from top to bottom, any
PDP 15 member in elective
office today is not directly or
indirectly a beneficiary and, so to say, my political child.
Anyone who may claim otherwise will be like a river that has forgotten its
source. But like a good father, all I seek is peaceful
and amicable solution that will re-unite the
family for victory and progress of the family and the nation
and nothing else.
In
a democracy, leaders are elected to
lighten the burden of the people, give
them freedom, choice and equity and
ensure good governance and not to deceive them, burden them,
oppress them, render them hopeless and
helpless. Nothing should be done
to undermine the tenets, and values of democratic principles and
practice. Tyranny in all its manifestation may be appealing
to a leader in trying times of political feud or
disagreement.
Democracy must, however,
prevail and be held as sacrosanct.
Today, you are the President of Nigeria, I
acknowledge you and respect you as such.
The
act of an individual has a way of
rubbing off on the generality.
May
it never be the wish of majority of Nigerians that Goodluck Jonathan, by
his acts of omission or commission,
would be the first and the last
Nigerian President ever to come from
Ijaw tribe. The idea and the
possibility must give all of us food
for thought. That was never
what I worked for and that would
never be what I will work for.
But legacy is made of such or the opposite.
My
last piece of advice, Mr. President,
is that you should learn the lesson of history
and please do not take Nigeria and Nigerians for granted.
Move
away from culture of denials, cover-ups
and proxies and deal honesty, sincerely and transparently
with Nigerians to regain their trust and confidence.
Nigerians are no fools, they can see, they can hear, they can talk among
themselves, they can think, they can compare and they can act in the
interest of their country and in their own
self-interest.
They keenly watch all
actions and deeds that are associated
with you if they cannot believe your
words. I know you have the power
to save PDP and the country. I beg
you to have the courage and the will with patriotism to use the
power for the good of the
country.
Please uphold some form of
national core values. I will appeal to all Nigerians particularly all
members of PDP to respect and dignify
the Office of the President. We must
all know that individuals will come and go but the Office will remain.
Once
again, time is of the essence. Investors are already
retreating 16 from Nigeria, adopting
‘wait and see attitude’ and knowing
what we are deficient of, it will take
time to reverse the trend and we
may miss some golden opportunities.
Finally,
your later-day conversion into National Conference is fraught with danger of
disunity, confusion and chaos if not well handled. I believe
in debate and dialogue but it must
be purposeful, directed and managed well without
ulterior motives. The ovation has not died out yet and there
is always life after a decent descent.
Accept,
Dear Mr. President, the assurances of
my highest consideration.
Olusegun
Obasanjo
PS
I
crave your indulgence to share the
contents of this letter, in the first
instance, with General Ibrahim Babangida
and General Abdulsalami Abubakar, who, on a
number of occasions in recent times,
have shared with me their agonising
thoughts, concerns and expressions on most
of the issues I have raised in this
letter concerning the situation and future
of our country. I also crave your indulgence to
share the contents with General Yakubu Danjuma and Dr. Alex
Ekwueme, whose concerns for and commitments to the good of
Nigeria have been known to be strong.
The
limit of sharing of the contents may
be extended as time goes on.
Olusegun
Obasanjo
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